Miscellaneous unorganized material/WHOI-TV
edit Digital programming Its signal is multiplexed. edit History It was Peoria's second television station signing-on as WTVH-TV on October 20, 1953. The station was owned-and-operated by Hilltop Broadcasting which was co-owned by the Peoria Journal Star.1 Its first studios were on North Madison Street in downtown Peoria. Originally broadcasting an analog signal on VHF channel 8 2, it was a primary CBS affiliate but also carried shows from ABC and DuMont. The latter ceased operations in 1955 and WTVH lost CBS when WMBD-TV began broadcasting. The Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, later known as Metromedia, purchased the station in 1959 and owned it for six years up to 1965. It was then sold to the owners of WIRL-AM who changed the call sign to WIRL-TV. It became WRAU-TV in 1973 and adopted its present calls of WHOI in 1985. The call sign WTVH was picked up by channel 5 in Syracuse, New York around 1976. In 1963, WHOI was bumped down to UHF channel 19 so that a third commercial VHF station could sign-on in the Quad Cities using that channel (the new station, WQAD-TV, is also an ABC affiliate). In 1987, WHOI came under the ownership of Adams Communications following a merger with its previous owner, Forward Communications. The station was sold to Brisette Broadcasting in 1991 then to Benedek Broadcasting in 1996. When Benedek merged with Gray Television in 2002 following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, WHOI was spun off to Chelsey Broadcasting. Starting in 1998, it began to run a cable-only WB affiliate known by the fictional call sign "WBPE" on channel 4 on most cable systems in the area. The newly-incorporated Barrington Broadcasting acquired WHOI and KHQA-TV in the Hannibal, Missouri/Quincy, Illinois media market from Chelsey in April 2004. On September 18, 2006, when The WB and UPN merged to create The CW, "WBPE" became part of The CW Plus which is a similar operation to The WB 100+. WHOI's digital signal added a new second digital subchannel to simulcast this programming to offer non-cable subscribers access to The CW. The channel then began to use WHOI-DT2 as its official calls.3 On March 2, 2009, it was announced that the operations of WHOI and its CW subchannel would be taken over by WEEK-TV through joint sales and shared services agreements. Sixteen employees were transferred to WEEK-TV but as many as thirty were laid-off immediately while WHOI moved to WEEK's studios.1 This left the five full-power commercial stations in the market operated by two entities. The WHOI and CW subchannel websites were immediately changed to redirects to WEEK's web address. As part of the agreement, Granite-owned CBS affiliate WTVH which is the oldest television station in Syracuse, was folded into Barrington's NBC affiliate WSTM-TV in a similar way on the same day.4 On June 12, WHOI remained on channel 19 when the analog to digital conversion was 5 with the "WHOI" calls being transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 19 to the new digital channel 19 and the "WHOI-DT" call sign from the pre-transition digital channel 40 being permanently discontinued. However, the PSIP identifier still identifies the station's main channel on 19.1 as "WHOI-DT". edit News operation WHOI's news open.During the 1980s and early-1990s, WHOI aired a nightly 5:30 o'clock newscast and showed ABC World News Tonight weeknights at 6 and weekends at 5. This provided viewers with a local broadcast seven nights a week while other stations aired national news. By 2009 before being consolidated with WEEK-TV, WHOI produced local newscasts weeknights at 5, 6, and 10; Saturday nights at 6 and 10; and Sunday nights at 5:30 and 10. The weekday morning show, HOI News Daybreak, continues to air from 5 to 7 after America This Morning and before Good Morning America. After the merger, four on-air staff were consolidated with WEEK's news department and continue to be seen on-air. Otherwise, that station uses other staff from this station for all other content. WHOI's weeknight 5 and 6 o'clock broadcasts were replaced with one at 5:30. World News with Charles Gibson was then moved to 6. That channel still airs a separate broadcast weeknights at 10. On weekends, the station simulcasts WEEK-TV although this may be pre-empted by ABC programming. The weekday local broadcasts on WHOI air from a new secondary set at WEEK-TV's studios. None of those separate broadcasts supply video to the website. Like all CW Plus stations in the Central Time Zone, WHOI-DT2 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 5 to 8. edit Newscast titles *''News Scene 19'' (1970s) *''19 News'' (1980s-1988) *''19 Eyewitness News'' (1988–1995) *''HOI 19 News'' (2001–present) *''News 25'' (2009–present, during simulcasted WEEK-TV shows) edit Station slogans *"Count on a Friend, Turn to 19" (1989–1992, used during period station used Frank Gari's "Turn To News") *"The Heart of Illinois" (1992–2008, general slogan) *"Your News Source" (1992–1995) *"Where Every Second Counts" (2002–2008, news slogan) *"Accurate. Balanced. To the Point." (news) / "Your Heart of Illinois" (general, 2008–present) *"Your Home Team" (2009–present, during simulcasted WEEK-TV shows) edit News team + denotes WHOI personnel not seen on WEEK-TV Anchors *+ Mark Welp - weekday mornings *+ Jen Christensen - weeknights *Ashley McNamee - weekends and reporter **fill-in meteorologist Meteorologists *Lee Ranson - weeknights at 5:30 *Chuck Collins (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weeknights at 10 *+ Gretchen Wirtz - weekday mornings *Jeff Muniz - weekends and news reporter Sports *Jim Mattson - Director seen weeknights at 10 **''Sports Final'' and Pep Rally host *Marc Strauss - weekends **news and sports reporter *Josh Simon - sports reporter *Lee Hall - Sports Final and Pep Rally host Reporters *Don "Dubbs" Washburn - "You Gotta Eat" segment producer *Eric Shangraw - "You Gotta Eat" segment producer *Dr. Joy Miller - "Ask Doctor Joy" segment producer *Bob Jacobs - "Postcard From Home" segment producer *Denise Jackson - fill-in news anchor *Emily West *Gina Ford *Tierney Modglin *Jen French edit Past on-air staff These personnel were seen on-air until the consolidation with WEEK-TV. Anchors *Mark Welp - weekday mornings (retained) *Tim McGinnis - Managing Editor seen weeknights. Now at WPDE as Evening Anchor *Jen Christensen - weeknights (retained) *Laura Michels - weekends and reporter Storm Team 19 Meteorologists *Ric Kearbey - Chief seen weeknights *Gretchen Wirtz - weekday mornings (retained) *Jessica Wheeler - weekends and news reporter **fill-in news anchor Sports *Jim Mattson - Director seen weeknights at 6 and 10 (retained) **''Rewind'' host *Donnie Tillman - weekends and sports reporter Reporters *Brock Spencer - Assignment Editor and special projects *Ian Schwartz *Nishi Gupta These personnel were also seen on the station at some point in time. *Spencer Adkins *Ivra Bassett *Doug Bell *Ira Bitner *Staci Bivens *Josh Brogadir *Kim Carrollo *Brian Christie *Jacki Conn *Tom Connor *Brenden Conway *Lisa Coverdale *Jessica D'Onofrio *Dan Cummins sports reporter & weekend sports anchor *Rusty Dunn *Lourdes Duarte *Jerry Dunphy (deceased) *Paul Ferrante *John Fougere *Aimee Fuller weeknight anchor *Kay Hartzell weeknight anchor *Alice Hout *Ron Howard *Gordon Joyner *Rollie Keith weeknight weather anchor *Brenda Ladun [[WBRC-TV] now at WBMA/WCFT/WJSU in Birmingham *Monica Landeros *Becky Liscum *Brent Lonteen *Michelle Mantel *Aaron McElherne *Steve Nicoles *Jake Miller *Dan Pearson *Susan Peters *Dan Phillips *Lee Ranson *Craig Roberts *Sheldon Ripson *David Scott weeknight anchor *Clark Smith weeknight anchor *Rebbeca Somach *Jennifer Speiser *Brock Spencer *Larry Sugarman weeknight sports anchor *Nancy Thiel weeknight anchor *Frank Vascellero weeknight anchor *Frank Vascellaro *Marjorie Vincent *Jill Wunrow *Brad Watson reporter & weekend anchor *Gene Young *Paul Zacovic edit References #^ a'' ''b Tarter, Steve (March 2, 2009). "Owners of WEEK taking over WHOI operations". Peoria Journal Star. http://www.pjstar.com/business/x1959832349/Owners-of-WEEK-TV-taking-over-operations-of-WHOI-TV. Retrieved March 2, 2009. #'^' http://dumonthistory.tv/a10.html #'^' http://www.hoinews.com/news/content.aspx?id=14614 #'^' http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/the_staff_of_wtvh_laid.html #'^' http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf edit External links *WHOI page on WEEK-DT's website *ABC *Query the FCC's TV station database for WHOI